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Venezuela Cave Save
Location: Caracas, Venezuela Date: July 13, 1991 Story On July 13, 1991, Gustavo Badilla Arenas and his friend Eduardo Wallis of Caracas journeyed into the Venezuelan rain forest to explore an underwater cave known to the locals as "Acarite". Accompanying them were Gustavo's fiancee, Maria Elena Mendoza, and a guide, National Parks Representative Asmel Palencia. Maria Elena was not happy about the expedition because Gustavo and Eduardo, experienced open-water divers, had not been trained in cave diving. At the cave entrance the men floated a candle as a signpost. For a safety line, they attached one end of a hundred-foot rope to a float and the other end to themselves. As they said good-bye, Maria Elena handed Gustavo a prayer card to take with them. The two young men dove underwater and entered the first passage, thirty feet below the surface. Within minutes, Eduardo and Gustavo became separated in water so murky that visibility was less than an inch. Eduardo couldn't see Gustavo, but he shouted to him to turn back. Gustavo shouted back okay. Eduardo hit one dead end after another but was finally relieved to see the candle glowing in the entrance. When he surfaced, Gustavo was not with him, nor did he respond when Eduardo shouted to him. Maria Elena insisted Eduardo go back to find Gustavo. The safety line had become untied from the float and was lost in the cave, so the group made a fifteen-foot makeshift line from belts, socks, and scrap rope. Eduardo re-entered the cave, scared for his own life. The murkiness of the water made it impossible to see anything so be turned back. When he re-emerged alone, Maria Elena was horrified. "My life just stopped right there," she recalls. "I thought, this is the end. He's going to die and I can't do anything from here." By now, it was too dark to send for help, but the next morning, Eduardo and Asmel left to call Gustavo's friend, Vivian Indriago, the owner of the dive shop where Gustavo worked. Vivian knew she wasn't experienced enough to enter the cave, so she called Steve Gerrard in Florida. Steve, one of the most experienced cave divers in the States, and John Orlowski, a river cave specialist, agreed to make the ten-hour trip. They assumed they were flying down to recover a body. In all the years he'd rescued cave divers, Steve had never pulled anyone out alive. When Gustavo's good friend Leo Calligaro heard the news, he flew in to attempt a rescue. Leo entered the cave. But he immediately turned back, realizing the danger. Devastated, Maria Elena decided to return to Caracas so she wouldn't have to witness the recovery of Gustavo's body. Thirty-six hours after Gustavo had been lost, Steve and John arrived and entered the cave. Who in their right mind would ever dive in there? thought Steve as he swam through the black waters. John didn't like it any better. He just wanted to get the job done and get out of there. "Why don't we just sit here for two hours and go out and tell them we couldn't find him," Steve said to John at one point, "because we're not going to find him in this." Three hundred feet into the cave, John saw a light flashing as he swam inside a chamber. He thought he was swimming toward Steve, but when he surfaced, he saw Gustavo coming toward him, the rescuers were shocked. Gustavo was alive. They escorted him out of the cave, where his elated friends greeted him with joyous applause. Gustavo's problems had begun when the rope came loose and tangled around his legs. He lost all sense of direction and swam in circles until he reached a chamber in the cave. A mud island in the middle saved him. He sat and waited, hoping someone would find him. Eventually, he saw a light and thought the angels were coming to get him. The angels were Steve and John. "Oh, my God," thought Gustavo when he heard the rescuers' voices, "Heaven is English and the angels are English." "Gustavo is extremely lucky to be alive," says Steve. "What he did was foolish because he didn't have the right training or the right equipment." Gustavo agrees. But he plans to return to Acarite after he becomes certified in cave diving. Maria Elena and Gustavo married one year later and remain grateful to their friends who helped save his life, especially Steve and John. "That Steve and John would come down from the States to rescue someone they didn't even know--that's a miracle," says Gustavo. "Thank God my angels came and saved me." Category:1991 Category:Cave Rescues Category:Diving Accidents